What’s Inside This Week?
July 16, 2026
Essentials Box
- Arugula, 8oz, $5.00
- Parsley, 3oz, $3.00
- Cucumber, 2lbs, $8.00
- Garlic, 1ct, $2.00
- Stonefruit Mix, 1lb, $4.00
Original Box
- Essentials Box, plus:
- Lettuce Mix, 8oz, $5.00
- Basil, 3oz, $3.00
- Squash Mix, 1lb, $3.00
- Avocados, 1lb, $5.00
Hearty Box
- Original Box, plus:
- Dill, 3oz, $3.00
- Kale, 8oz, $5.00
- Grapes, 1lb, $4.00
- Red Cabbage, 1ct, $4.00
See you at the Old Town Market!
Find us at the Old Town Market in downtown Lompoc with fresh greens and eggs. We’d love to see you there.
We’re also running a giveaway every Friday at the market — earn one entry for every $25 you spend with us. The more you shop, the better your odds!
Field Notes
We filled a beautiful order of head lettuce for the Route 1 Mobile Market Truck this week, headed to a Community Gathering at Ocean Park for the Santa Ynez River Bridge project. It turned into an education for all of us — we learned about the community’s input on the design, the conservation efforts underway for steelhead trout and plovers, and the new bridge plans themselves. There were fun activities for the kids, free tacos, and the market truck gave away our head lettuce along with beautiful strawberries. Community events like this are exactly why we grow more than we need — food is a great excuse to bring people together and talk about the things that matter to a place.
Myron with the head lettuce headed to Saturday’s Community Gathering at Ocean Park.
Jeremy spent the last four days on the mini excavator preparing irrigation for the pollinator habitat program. Getting water to over 300 new plants is no small task, and it meant a lot of trenching, testing, and problem-solving in the heat — made worse by the fact that a mini excavator runs at a casual 180–210 degrees right under the seat. This habitat is going to reach a lot of the farm — around the entire garden, inside the garden itself, around our other growing areas, our large grassy event field where we plan to host weddings starting next year, the paddocks and rental trailers, and an area we currently use for mulch. It’s a farm-wide project. We also went through the full plant list and sorted everything into groups by variety. A handful of varieties — toyon, coffeeberry, holly leaf cherry, and arroyo willow — grow especially large, and since we already have plenty of arroyo willow along our creek, we returned some of those and used the space for more 2–4 foot flowering varieties instead.
The final mix is beautiful: several varieties of yarrow and buckwheat, goldenrod, coyotebrush, sentinel, toyon, chokecherry, sugar bush, California wild rose, white sage, blue elderberry, Vine Hill manzanita, blue blossom ceanothus, birchleaf mountain mahogany, bush lupine, fuchsia flowered gooseberry, coastal sagebrush, great valley gumweed, hollyleaf cherry, Mexican tulip poppy, giant coreopsis, columbine, island snapdragon, Yankee Point ceanothus, snowball ceanothus, and Pacific aster. It’s going to be spectacular once it’s all in bloom, spread across so much of the farm.
Jeremy on the mini excavator, day one of irrigation prep for the pollinator habitat.
Wade and Waylon pitching in with the dirt from the irrigation trench. Every hand counts.
Some of the Mexican tulip poppies from the new plant order are already flowering, and they’re already attracting butterflies, bees, and other pollinators — a small preview of what this whole area is going to look like once everything is established.
Mexican tulip poppies, already flowering and already busy with visitors.
There are lots of California quail with babies around the farm this time of year, and honestly, they’re going to love the wildlife habitat we’re about to plant around the garden as much as we will.
California quail with their babies, out and about the farm this time of year.
We also got signed up for and completed an onboarding meeting with the FSA and NRCS, exploring funding for high tunnels, irrigation upgrades, moisture sensors, and other resource conservation grants. Programs like these are a big part of how a small farm builds resilience over time, and we’re excited to see what’s available to us.
And after a full week out of commission, the garden tractor is back! We tore it apart, found and flushed a clog in the fuel lines, and put it back together. It’s running great and already back in the garden turning over more beds.
Storage Tips
Greens: arugula, lettuce mix, kale → wrap in a towel, bag in the fridge; use within 5–7 days.
Herbs: parsley, dill → damp paper towel, bagged in the fridge; use within 4–5 days. Basil → jar of water on the counter, never the fridge.
Cucumbers: fridge crisper, unwashed; use within 5 days for best crunch.
Alliums: garlic → cool, dry, dark place with airflow; do not refrigerate.
Squash: squash mix → fridge crisper, unwashed, loosely bagged; best within 4–5 days.
Brassicas: red cabbage → fridge crisper, loosely bagged; keeps 1–2 weeks.
Fruit: stonefruit mix → counter to ripen, fridge once soft; use within 2–3 days. Grapes → fridge, unwashed until ready to eat; keeps 1–2 weeks. Avocados → counter to ripen, then fridge.
Crispy Squash Fritters with Cucumber Dill Tzatziki
Crispy squash fritters with cucumber dill tzatziki turn this week’s squash mix into something you’ll want to make again before the box even runs out. Battered, fried until golden, and dunked in cool, garlicky tzatziki — these crispy squash fritters are the kind of snack that disappears fast.
Ingredients
- 1lb squash mix, grated
- 1 tsp salt, for drawing out moisture
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup flour
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- Neutral oil, for frying
- Tzatziki:
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- 1/2 cucumber, grated and squeezed dry
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp salt, squeeze of lemon
Instructions
- Grate squash, toss with 1 tsp salt, and let sit in a colander 10 minutes. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible with a clean towel.
- Mix squash with eggs, flour, Parmesan, parsley, and pepper into a thick batter.
- Heat 1/4-inch oil in a skillet over medium-high. Drop heaping tablespoons of batter in and flatten slightly. Fry 3–4 minutes per side until deep golden. Drain on paper towels.
- For the tzatziki, stir together yogurt, grated cucumber, garlic, dill, olive oil, salt, and lemon. Chill while the fritters cook.
- Serve the crispy squash fritters warm with tzatziki alongside for dipping.
Fried or roasted — two ways to fall in love with summer squash
Crispy squash fritters are a great introduction to a technique that works with almost any summer squash you’ll find in a farm box — zucchini, yellow squash, pattypan, crookneck, or a mix of all four. The formula stays constant: grate it, salt it, squeeze out the water, bind it with egg and a little flour, and fry until the edges crisp and the inside stays tender. The salting-and-squeezing step is non-negotiable; summer squash is mostly water, and skipping this step is the single biggest reason homemade fritters turn out greasy or fall apart.
If frying isn’t your thing, roasting is an excellent alternative and requires almost no technique at all. Toss cubed or sliced squash mix in olive oil, salt, and pepper, spread it in a single layer on a sheet pan, and roast hot — 425°F or higher — until the edges caramelize. High heat and a single layer are the two things that matter most; crowd the pan and you’ll steam the squash instead of roasting it.
The cucumber dill tzatziki that goes with either version is worth learning on its own. It’s a five-minute sauce that works far beyond this recipe — spoon it over grilled meat or fish, use it as a dip for raw vegetables, or thin it with a little water and use it as a salad dressing. The technique that matters here, too, is squeezing the grated cucumber dry before adding it to the yogurt; skip that step and the tzatziki turns watery within an hour.
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